Cheese Bread Shootout – Round 1

I have been making my own recipe of cheese bread for a few years, and wanted to compare it to Chris Kimball’s cheese bread. At first glance, his recipe totally out-classes my own. He uses a mixture of freshly-grated Asiago and freshly-grated Parmesan cheese. Mine just uses cheap Kraft Parmesan cheese. His adds skillet-roasted garlic and a little Dijon mustard. I’ve become fairly accustomed to loosing these shootouts to Chris. However, in this case my family gets to eat both Cheese Breads, so there really are no losers.

Chris Kimball's (left) has much deeper flavor, but...

My Cheese Bread Recipe: Mix softened butter, Kraft grated Parmesan cheese in a bowl with a fork, then spread on bread which is cooked face down in a non-stick skillet.

Much to my surprise, my Cheese Bread won the shootout. Because mine is cooked on top of a non-stick skillet, only the open face is browned. Chris Kimball’s is baked in a 500-degree oven until the top is brown. But considering the bottom crust was already fully cooked in the bakery, it is unavoidable that his crust become overdone (see photo below). In terms of flavors, Chris Kimball had much deeper and more interesting flavors.

However, there were two factors that prevented this from being a knockout. First, I cut both recipes in half in order to share a single loaf of Italian bread. But I made a mistake and added the full 2 teaspoons of Dijon to Chris Kimball’s recipe; which was one of two major complaints against it. Second my recipe was clearly missing butter, so cutting it in half was too much of a decrease. I will adjust both of these issues for Round 2. Hopefully next week.

Comments:

Because this is a variation, I am not counting it as a new recipe. Besides, I made so many new recipes since August I am certain that I will complete my goal of 100 new recipes.

This will likely be the last variation of his garlic bread that I try (the other variations are here and here).

Rating: 3-1/2 stars and 2-1/2 stars. Room for improvement on both loaves.
Cost: $5 for both loaves.
How much work? Low.
How big of a mess? Low.
Started: 6:00 PM. Ready: 6:25.